1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to water treatment systems, specifically those systems that are used to sterilize and cleanse water.
2. Description of the Related Art
Water is a valuable resource that serves numerous different purposes. Perhaps the most well known use of water is as a beverage for human or animal consumption. In addition, water is essential for bathing and cleaning. Water is also used in beverage and food processing as an ingredient and/or as a cleaning agent for cleansing the ingredients and/or the processing equipment. Water also serves important purposes in medical facilities, pharmacies, and research laboratories. For instance, in medical facilities water is used to cleanse and/or sterilize wounds, burns, surgical equipment, and hospital supplies. In pharmacies, water is used to reconstitute dehydrated medication and prepare medicinal remedies. In research laboratories, water is used to cleanse supplies, prepare solutions, extract compounds, and wash products.
However, raw water often contains pathogens and other microbes that can cause adverse reactions in humans and animals. Consequently, raw water must be cleansed before it can safely serve these purposes. In the case of certain purposes, such as cleansing cuts, scrapes, burns, and the like, the water may also need to be sterilized. Furthermore, raw water typically contains minerals such as iron, which may stain surfaces, skin and hair, and calcium, which forms scale build-up on surfaces. Consequently, some uses require that the water be demineralized before use. Attempts have been made to cleanse water including adding various chemicals to the water to kill pathogens and/or filtering the water to remove pathogens. Unfortunately, these methods often do not cleanse the water to the degree necessary for some uses, such as medicinal and pharmaceutical purposes.
One known chemical method commonly used by municipal utilities includes adding large amounts of chlorine to the water. However, the chlorine may adversely affect the taste of the water, and may also combine with any organic matter present in the water to produce undesirable and potentially dangerous compounds. In addition, the chlorine may cause adverse reactions in people who are sensitive to chemical chlorine. Furthermore, even after chlorination, the water still may still contain a level of microbes that, although deemed safe, may still cause adverse reactions in some people. As a result, some chlorination methods include adding one or more additional chemicals in an attempt to kill the remaining pathogens from the water. However, these attempts are often unsuccessful and can compound the problems associated with chlorination.
Another known method of cleansing water includes impregnating water with ozone (O3) to assist in killing pathogens and other microbes. Such a system is shown in FIG. 1. In these systems the water is impregnated with ozone, or “ozonated,” and the ozonated water is held in a storage tank until used. Unfortunately, over a period of time the ozone (O3) breaks down forming O2, which does not provide the same cleansing effects as ozone. Thus, the stored ozonated water remains effectively ozonated for only a limited period of time. In addition, once the ozone breaks down and the water is no longer considered clean it is generally not used. This results in the generation of a significant amount of waste water. Furthermore, the previous ozone impregnation systems typically use an excess amount of ozone, which may come out of solution during storage of the ozonated water. This excess ozone is usually vented from the system and is neither recovered, nor recycled. Thus, a substantial external supply of ozone is required to impregnate the water, thereby resulting in higher costs and the need for a larger ozone production and storage unit.
Another drawback to previous ozonation systems is that effluent (waste) water is often introduced directly into the ozonation system without preliminary cleansing or filtration. In this case, the ozone is performing more than just the sterilization of the water; it is also cleansing the water. Consequently, the use of such effluent water requires very large quantities of ozone in order to sufficiently clean and maintain a minimum concentration of ozone in the water. Furthermore, the higher the quality of the water introduced into the ozonation system, the higher the quantity of residual ozone remaining in the water. Therefore, the amount of residual ozone in water is greatly reduced in ozonation systems using effluent water because the ozone is being used, not only to sterilize the water but also, to remove all contaminants and minerals. In addition, some of these previous ozonation systems utilize the same tank both for storing the ozonated water and for introducing the effluent water to the ozonation system, thereby quickly contaminating the ozonated water and further reducing the already decreasing ozone level. Thus, the use of effluent water in the previous ozonation systems presents many problems in the sterilization and cleansing of water.
With respect to the demineralization of the water, a common method of removing minerals from the water involves the use of a water softener. Such water softeners remove minerals, such as iron and calcium, but are not capable of sufficiently removing pathogens and other microbes from water.
Therefore, a need remains for a water sterilization system that provides purified water that is free of microbes and other pathogens.